Copper eyes opened slowly. Bright light met the dark pupils. Copper eyes narrowed to dull the pain. A cream-colored hand raised upward against the glaring light. A body in a white nightgown sat up slowly.

"Ah! You're up!" a cheerful voice echoed off to the side. The figure in the bed turned towards the voice.

"Who are you?" was the first question from the patient's mouth.

"Don't you recognize me?" the voice replied with a laugh. "It's me! Your doctor!"

Slowly, then, names and faces came back into mind. His name was Rexus Alreth, and he had just finished receiving bottom sex-reassignment surgery. Her name was Lisa Lockewood and, as she had said, she was one of the doctors who helped with the operation. She was viewed as Denbar's best doctor and surgeon, especially when it came to sex-reassignment surgery. In fact, her most iconic operation was her own. She, too, was transgender, and she had helped outline her own surgery, though of course, she had been unable to see it performed personally. But clearly, she had done a good job in writing it all out, because her sex-reassignment surgery had gone off without a hitch. There was a very good reason why Rexus had chosen to work with her when it came to his own sex-reassignment surgery.

"Yeah, I'm up, I'm up," Rexus growled, voice lower and raspy from being unconscious for so long.

"How do you feel?" Dr. Lockewood pressed.

"Different," Rexus replied. Dr. Lockewood laughed.

"That is to be expected, dear," she said. "But do you feel well? Is anything causing you any pain?"

"Not really," Rexus answered honestly. "Did everything go ok?"

"So far, yes," Dr. Lockewood nodded. "Everything has gone perfectly! Now, of course, there will be recovery pains, and you probably will need to keep from doing anything to stressful, physically or mentally, but that's all very standard stuff," she continued.

"But everything is ok?" Rexus asked again. As his consciousness returned to him, so did the urgency he felt about his operation. "Nothing went wrong and I'm a full-on guy now, right?"

"Yes, dear," Dr. Lockewood nodded again. "Of course you are. The surgery is over, the payments have been made, the paperwork is being drafted as we speak and you should be all set to go home real soon!"

"As a new man," Rexus nodded, exhaling softly in wonder at the thought.

"As a new man," Dr. Lockewood echoed gently, understanding exactly what the boy was thinking and feeling. She smiled at him gently and after making sure that he really was feeling as well as he claimed, she took leave of the operating room for a moment. This left Rexus alone with his thoughts. He reclined back and closed his copper eyes once more. A new man...

Rexus' life had been a relatively easy and simple one. It was just him, his younger sister, and his mothers and father. They all lived together in one of the western states of Denbar and, for the most part, were happy. Even Rexus himself never had much to complain about. Apart from one little thing. His gender. He had been born a beautiful and lively young female, but even from a younger age, something hadn't felt quite right. It started off as a nagging feeling at first, like trying to find the right color crayon only to be a few shades off. While the rest of the world insisted that his color was fine, he had always know, at least a little bit, that it was a shade or so off...

As the years passed, the feeling intensified, and there reached a point when it was no longer like being a few shades off, or merely using the wrong colored crayon. Then it felt like being entirely out of place, like he was living as someone else, like he had stolen someone else's body and identity. The person he was on the outside was not the person he was within, and every time he looked in a mirror, he felt as though he were looking at somebody else. Like it wasn't supposed to be him. Like he had gotten the wrong body and was just waiting to switch back with the body he was supposed to have been given.

"That can't be me!" he used to think, perplexed, as he studied his old female form. And then at last, once he found himself entering into the first stages into adulthood, he felt himself entering the first stages into transition as well. He had always sort of known and felt that a female life was not what he was supposed to have, a mixture of uncertainty, fear and internalized transphobia (he had plenty of trans friends himself, but for some reason, he seemed incapable of wrapping his mind around the idea that he might be one as well) kept him from ever being certain. He always second-guessed and tried to explain around it, or reason that maybe he would settle down into his female body eventually. That day never came. Instead, he finally began to take strides in the other direction, towards transition.

From that first day when he came out to himself, the rest was history. He was officially given a prescription to start hormones and, after long enough on them, he finally moved into surgery. Now here he was two-ish years later, in the body that he was always meant to have. It felt much more comfortable, and much better. Something about it felt more natural and familiar, even though it was new.

"Now this is how I'm supposed to feel!" he muttered to himself as he continued to inspect his new body. There really was something so natural and so right and so familiar about all of this.

In time, Rexus was finally released from the operating room. His father and little sister were waiting for him, his mother back home and prepping a little welcome-home post-op party for him.

"It'll be a big change," Dr. Lockewood warned Rexus as they left the hospital together.

"Don't I know it," Rexus grunted with a smirk, but he felt so much better now. Silly as it sounded, he felt proud of what was between his legs now (even if it would never grow very long or be 100% functional). It just felt so right and much better than anything he'd had before and now, with both surgeries complete, he really felt as though he had been reborn. Now he was finally whole, now he felt ready to start his new life.

"Ah! The man of the hour!" the first one to greet Rexus as he emerged was his younger sister, Oliver. She hopped up and ran over to him with wide and eager eyes, impressed as she studied him closely. Even though the aftermath of this surgery wasn't nearly as visible as the previous one, she still looked enchanted and interested.

"Ah! My son! Good to see you! All went well, I hope?" Rexus' father was the second to rise, looking back and forth between him and the doctor.

"As far as we know," Dr. Lockewood replied with a reassuring nod. She did warn him that future troubles may arise, but at the moment, everything was perfectly fine and healthy within Rexus' newly completed male form. Rexus, meanwhile, continued to show off to his little sister. Even though, once again, this change was less noticeable, he playfully flexed his arms for her.

"I'm a real man now!" he laughed.

"You always were," she replied, eyes sparkling. "You were always my big brother! But I'm so glad you finally get to feel that way too," she added and Rexus had to cough in order to mask the sob that had risen up in his throat after such a supportive and loving remark from Oliver.

Oliver had always been Rexus' number one supporter, advocate and ally. She was the first one he ever came out to, and just like now, she had promised that she would love him no matter what. Whether he was sister or brother did not matter to her. He was family either way. And her faith in such a remark had not wavered in the slightest in all the years that Rexus had been transitioning. He was eternally grateful for it. The two had always been very close and affectionate and that had only doubled during Rexus' transition period and Rexus was certain that he would never love anyone else as much as he loved her, his precious little sister. And she felt the same way about him.

Things only got better from there. He began to feel more confident, happy, relaxed and at peace again. He no longer suffered anxiety attacks just because something didn't look or feel right. He no longer felt ashamed when he laughed or moved because he no longer had to worry about whether or not he still looked or sounded too girly. He began to go shirtless. He walked with a taller, firmer stride. He smiled more. He finally felt like his body matched his clothing and hairstyle. He felt more comfortable and included and "in" when he hung out with other guys. His confidence was over the moon at this point, and so was he!

ooo

"Come on, big brother, quit staring off into space!" Oliver interrupted Rexus' happy recollections. "We're going out to celebrate your one year anniversary since you finished transitioning!"

"Are we really?" Rexus laughed. Many times before, Oliver had pleaded with Rexus to celebrate his transition day like a second birthday, but that was just because she wanted another excuse to eat out or celebrate.

"Yeah, Mama said we could go to the pizza parlor downtown and then go for ice cream after!" Oliver nodded, dragging Rexus towards the car.

"Wonderful," he grunted, allowing the younger girl to pull him along. She wasn't that much younger than he was and he was still a maturing adult, but she could act like a little kid every now and then, especially when it came to celebrations.

"Alright, now, don't kill him!" Rexus' father admonished as he watched his daughter drag his son towards the car.

"Don't worry, Dad, she'll need to try harder than that!" Rexus laughed.

"Be careful what you wish for!" Rexus' mother warned, but the words had barely left her mouth before Oliver simply picked Rexus right up off the ground and slung him over her shoulder.

"Oh! Sweet Denbar!" he cried as the ground was suddenly ripped out from underneath his feet. Although he was a heavy guy, having packed on the pounds in the past year, Oliver was surprisingly strong for someone of her body type and she was able to carry Rexus with ease, tossing him into the car as if he were nothing more than a sack of potatoes.

"We tried to warn you," Rexus' father chuckled as Oliver brushed her hands off with a satisfied little smirk.

"Whatever," Rexus grunted, pretending to glare at Oliver from his seat in the car.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Oliver pleaded. "I'm starving to death!" Then she vaulted into the car right after Rexus.

"Patience, child!" Rexus joked as she quickly buckled herself in.

"Shut up," Oliver replied, tongue out.

"No fighting," Rexus' mother warned as she and her husband trundled into the car after their impatient children. The two fell into an obedient and amicable silence after that, but they continued to make faces at one another as the car drove on down the road. Their father noticed it in the rearview mirror, but he said nothing, choosing instead to stifle laughter as he watched the two go at it. It didn't matter that they were both adults (or almost adult in Oliver's case), they were still very childish at heart, and it was endlessly entertaining to watch. Not for the first time did he and his wife thank Denbar for their luck to be blessed with such a wonderful daughter... and son.

AN: Here's another Denbar character, and shout-out to the friend who helped me write this fic! He knows who he is!